more lessons on fandom

Anyone saw this banner at the ground yesterday, held by one of those cherishing, and much cherished; lovable, and loving fans of the Indian team?

"Last warning to Team India: Reach Barbados or stay forever in Trinidad."

Who are you, and who are you to issue a 'warning', and why should you, with such a mature viewpoint, even matter? But that's just me, and I don't matter either- I'm just another insignificant fan. Might I make a teeny weeny request though? Could said invaluable 'supporter' kindly find his abode in some obscure part of the world, thank you. Much obliged.

what a pass

! moment: We here have decided to try and jot down moments we see during this wonderful tournament. Here's another one.

Vusi Sibanda's catch yesterday. Gayle nicks it, it takes a deflection from Taylor , just as Sibanda at first slip is moving to his right. The keeper gets a hand, it shoots towards Sibanda's left and he catches in an very unlikely direction shift of his body. An assist from Taylor, Michael Holding called it- hardly, its lucky they got it. It happened in the match against Ireland too, but this was a mite more...watchable.

Also, anyone see the 3rd umpire referral from Aleem Dar during the Indian innings yesterday? A stumping appeal was sent up to the 3rd umpire despite it being a called no ball by the umpire. Yes, you can't be stumped off a no-ball, so, er... why the referral? We is bemused.

encore!

!moment :
Dwayne Leverock, the most recognisable cricketer not previously recognisable to anyone except anyone, pulls of a stunner at slip. His giant frame somehow initiates bullet-time, and with great visions of Neo floating in his mind, he latches onto a ball his considerable frame would not have thought possible. But the true cinematic performance comes after, when the policeman's emotions overflow, where all that usually spreads is his body mass. He runs this way, then that. He wards off team mates with a style footballers would be proud of. He blows kisses to his adoring fans, knowing he might just have had the best moment in his international sporting career, ever.

Meanwhile, a 17 year old kid who just got a wicket off his forst ball of the match, sheds a few tears. The team smothers him, celebrating more like they had just taken the 10th wicket for 100 than the first for 5. But hey, who can grudge them that. Here's another thing to learn from the associates- unabashed joy in the game.

addendum: and here it is:

venom

Mr Panicker (who, it seems-delightfully- is blogging regularly again) puts forth precisely yet eloquently something one feels terribly strongly about.

'We lost religion and found sport,' The Telegraph's columnist Mihir Bose once wrote. And hatred seems, unfortunately, to be the corollary of religion, everywhere, throughout time.
The religions themselves do not preach hatred; our latest religion, sport, certainly does not. Yet we subvert those religions, and now sport, to our own purposes; we invest it with intolerance and bigotry and hatred.

…and also reacts thusly about someone who has been quick to gleefully write off team India.

Pathetic

Obsession, fanatical following of a sport that’s just not a game, emotion about something that’s larger than the mundanities of middle class life…and passion. Of all the clichés about Indian cricket fans, the worst is the kind of shameful, and shameless, reactions that follow a loss. I don’t care how much the ‘team performance’ means to you (and I have my doubts about that anyway), and I couldn’t care less about how a win will elevate your otherwise boring or unfulfilling life (it does mine, too by the way)- but you do not have the right to behave like violent, mindless hooligans (video).

You call the loss pathetic? I think you’re pathetic.

A larger world

Bob Woolmer passes away, shockingly. All deaths are shocking, I suppose. But to come during the Cricket World Cup, in odd and sorry circumstances and in an odd and sorry situation…there is a feeling, for me, of it all being very surreal.
First a 22 year old cricket talent in Bangladesh, a few days later a 58 year old coaching pioneer. It all leaves one feeling a little small and disconnected.

much more here.

Capsized

Freddie Flintoff is fined, stripped of his vice captaincy and dropped from the playing XI against Canada. All for having one too many drinks for a few too many hours.

pic courtesy

Contrasting reactions from (I paraphrase)
Nasser Hussain- “Well done to the Engliand management to show that even your best players have to abide by the rules of discipline”,
and Mr Botham- “Some people react to a loss by going to their rooms by 9.30pm, other need to go have a beer. I don’t think there’s anything wrong n what he’s done, the only mistake he made was …- getting caught.”
What do you say to that?!

St. Patrick's day

I did not particularly want Pakistan to lose, but which neutral doesn’t like a fairy tale like win for an underdog that’s showing oodles of spirit and fight? Despite everything, I fear 2 easy points loom ahead for all the six teams playing Ireland in the Super 8s. But- it if it was ‘just’ an upset I would have been ok with that. Pakistan getting knocked out of the World Cup is just plain….weird.

Kya, yaar.

…and Osman Saimuddin vents. I feel for him.

Oh, no...

A bunch of teenagers hammer India. For the proverbial Martian watching this, it would have seemed Bangladesh are the cricketing giants and India the almost-minnows. Despite some of the utterly hopeless performances dished out by India, I couldn’t help but be stunned at the way Bangladeshis turned up. A Spring in their step, aggressions and attitude brimming over, self belief in every action.

You’d think also that 190 was one of those clichéd neither here nor there scores, that on not-the-best of batting pitches would be a tricky task for a team that’s hardly won anything at a World Cup before. You’d be wrong, as most of us were. Tamim Iqbal looked at first (at least to me admittedly biased eyes) to be trying a little too much, and stuff beyond his depth. Soon he had the Indian bowlers not only on the backfoot, but tripping over themselves. Then Mushfiqur Rahim played with a panache almost unknown to any of his more ‘illustrious’ Indian counterparts today.

Eventually though, it was less about our bowling, a bit about how the top 4 flopped, but mostly about how unforgivable (and unfathomable) losing 5 wickets for 2 runs was. 157 for 4 to 159 for 9- I’m still reeling from that.

Mar 17

191 is not going to be that easy to defend, moderately promising pitch nothwithstanding.
aargh.

meanwhile, it a great St Patrick's day for the leprechaun army. Not so good for the pakistani brethren.

India Cann

Priceless.

"I can honestly say that we have a player called Lionel Cann," says Bermuda skipper Irving Romaine. "He loves India. He has named his child India. His biggest player is actually Tendulkar. Right now I'm hoping Tendulkar does not hit a catch to him because he will probably drop it to watch him bat."

If nothing else, the little stories that come out of these 'lesser-known' nations are worth their participation.

hat-tip: vishnu

track-shack

I find it quite hard to believe that this man, veritable royalty, was not invited to the Opening Ceremony in his homeland. Astonishing. Meanwhile, Andy Roberts, has a couple of blunt things for the Indians.

The man with an impassive face, gave a disturbing piece of news to the Indians: "Don't think the wickets here are going to be too slow, like the last time you guys visited," he said. But what he said just before he got up to leave was more disconcerting. "Enjoy it while it lasts guys, your team won't be here after the Super Eight gets over."

This whole pitch thing is quite interesting. There has been a fair bit of talk about the subcontinental teams feeling at home. Sure, the Caribbean pitches have slowed down considerably in recent years, but I still would nto liken them to subcontinental conditions. Moreover, there has been no reason to think that the relaid pitches - while not quite reverting to the hey days of quick tracks- will be slow or turning. If the first couple of games, especially the opening match are anything to go by, this won't be as much of a 'spinner' tournament as has been suggested.

World Cup Ponderings – life

Life is going to get very tricky. Watching matches through the night (app 9.30pm to 6am) is tough enough, but you would expect someone passionate enough about the game to , at the very least, attempt to do so. Add to that the minor technicality of going to work (presumably straight after, or a few hours later), and the dodgy-ness of it all becomes clearer. Even with a stoic acceptance of bleary eyes and blurry waking hours, the prospect is daunting. Life is going to get very tricky indeed.

I can’t wait.

This was written on Monday. Aforementioned work prevented me from even logging on since.

unningly staesthetic

Andrew Miller's mostly entertaining account of the Opening Ceremony also has this gem:

00.04GMT Brace yourselves. It's Percy Sonn. "The West Indies must rank as the most idyllic and stunningly aesthetic cricket-playing country in the world," announces the President of the ICC. Gosh, try saying "stunningly aesthetic" when you're drunk ...

Ah.

Harmy's back. not.

One of Sony's spots for the World Cup features none other than Steve Harmison. Yes, the same one who retired from ODIs a couple of months ago.
I am amazed.

Inept

Time deLisle's enjoyable piece on the anti-Tendulkar. A couple of excerpts:

McGrath faces one ball per match. He has played 239 one-day internationals and faced 236 balls.
If he bats, it means Australia are in trouble; if he passes 5, they lose.
His favourite opponents are New Zealand, whom he has pummelled for 37 runs at a rate of more than one a match (31 games). Against South Africa, he has managed only 12 runs in 39 games.

Meanwhile, rediff sensationalises this issue that is not so new anymore, (and kartikeya writes about it)

Personae?

Men in White's post on Australia has caused a bit of a stir in the comments section. leaving aside that argument (which you can enjoy here), the post itself is a bit odd. It seems like it was left midway, for one. 'Dramatis Personae' led me to believe we would read about Mr Kesavan's impressions of the key personalities from this team, or for the World Cup in general. Neither really happened. Its basically a comment on why he would like to see Australia lose.

World Cup regulations-scheduling

The ICC decided some time ago to fine tune the World Cup schedule, specifically the Super 8 match-ups. A top seeded team in a group will be considered at the ‘#1’ team in that group, even if they are second on points. For example, if South Africa top group A, Australia will still be ‘A1’ for the purposes of figuring who is playing whom and when, in the Super8s. The only change to this will be if one of the ‘minnows’ makes it through. Then it will replace the team it has eliminated. (For example, Scotland will become A1 if they oust Australia. Ya, right).

The reasoning would seem sound- this will be a big help for the press, media in general, broadcasters, administrators and travelling fans to plan their schedules. For example- again, you’d think Australia will make it to the second stage, but now don’t have to wait to see where they stand in the group to know when and where they will play once they are through.

Yet, given that this change to the schedule (from its original generic one) has been made on the ICC site without them, apparently, offering any explicit reason, it will come across as predictive rather than practical; nonsensical rather than sensible. Also, shouldn’t this have been decided much, much earlier for it to fully serve the purposes mentioned above?

giving the finger

Jacob Oram goes Eklavya on us about the World Cup.

"If it means cutting the finger off, if that's the worse case scenario, if that's the last resort, I'll do that, there's no way I'm missing this."

update: ok then, ha ha.

our game is like this only

The meaning of the Konkani lyrics in the new Nike ad:

'Wait, partner, wait
First let me play
If you don't play, I'll keep
chasing you all day
Our game is like this only
Where we have no time to think
It is the game of cat and mouse
That I have begun to love
And in the falling running breaking
My destiny is entwined'